News Briefs - Feb. 8
The Latest Headlines:
- Sen. Lott to Chair Transportation Panel
- Commercial Vehicle Group Reports Acquisition, Higher Profit
- Texas Reportedly Pursuing Private Road-Building Plan
- Vitran Reports Earnings Rise, Schedules Stock Buyback
- Transport Corp. of America’s Earnings Increase
- Gouse Named Executive Director of Automotive Group
- SEC to Hear Business Concerns Over Sarbanes-Oxley
- United Road Services Becomes Private
- Senate Begins Debate on Class-Action Bill
- Commercial Vehicle Group Reports Acquisition, Higher Profit
Sen. Lott to Chair Transportation Panel
Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has been appointed chairman of a Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over trucking, according to a statement released by his office.Lott will chair the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee.
The panel has the most extensive jurisdiction of the full committee’s 10 subcommittees, his office said, with authority over automobiles, trucks, railroads, Amtrak, maritime and ports, driver safety, transportation of hazardous materials, pipelines and transportation research.
Commercial Vehicle Group Reports Acquisition, Higher Profit
Commercial Vehicle Group Inc. announced it acquired Mayflower Vehicle Systems’ North American commercial vehicle operations for $107.5 million.Mayflower, based in the U.K., produces cab frames and assemblies, sleeper boxes and other structural components for the commercial vehicle sector, CVGI said in a statement.
Separately, CVGI reported fourth-quarter earnings of $5.9 million or 32 cents a share, compared with $1.4 million or 10 cents the year before.
The company’s revenue jumped to $101.3 million, a 30% increase from previous fourth quarter.
CVGI is a supplier of interior systems and other cab-related products for the commercial vehicle market. The company completed its initial public offering last August. Transport Topics
Texas Reportedly Pursuing Private Road-Building Plan
Texas is seeking private contractors to build and maintain a huge, multi-billion-dollar roads project that would allow toll collection for 50 years, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.he state is considering a project called the Trans-Texas Corridor, an ambitious, $184 billion, 50-year plan that would build 4,000 new roadways, the Post said.
orridors of roads would have six high-speed toll lanes for cars and trucks, six rail lines and easements for petroleum, natural gas and water pipelines and electric, broadband and other telecommunications lines, the paper said.
With the state’s population expected to double to 50 million in the next few decades and cross-border trade increasing, the new corridor would move people and goods on highways at speeds up to 85 miles per hour, and hazardous materials could bypass metropolitan areas of Houston and Dallas, improving the state's ability to prevent terrorist attacks, the Post reported. Transport Topics
Vitran Reports Earnings Rise, Schedules Stock Buyback
Vitran Corp., Toronto, reported fourth-quarter net income of $4.4 million or 34 cents a share, compared with $3.2 million or 29 cents a year earlier.Vitran said its fourth-quarter income was positively impacted by a one-time tax benefit of about $700,000 and that it planed to buy back up to 5% of its outstanding shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Fourth-quarter revenue rose 13% to $96.5 million, the company said.
The company’s less-than-truckload operations earned $4.1 million, compared with $4 million a year earlier, with 12% revenue growth in its U.S. unit and 5% in its Canadian unit. Truckload operations earned $500,000 for the quarter compared with $100,000 a year earlier.
For the full year Vitran earned $14.9 million or $1.17 per share, compared with $10.3 million or $1.01 in 2003. The company said 2005 earnings would be $1.23 to $1.35 per share.
Vitran is ranked No. 56 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Transport Corp. of America’s Earnings Increase
Truckload carrier Transport Corp. of America Inc. said its fourth-quarter earnings were $1.1 million, 17 cents per share, compared with $322,000 or 4 cents a year earlier.Operating revenue rose to $65.3 million, compared with $62.1 million a year earlier.
Revenue per loaded mile, excluding fuel surcharges, improved 6.3% from the previous fourth quarter, the company said in a statement.
For the full year, the company earned $2 million or 30 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.1 million or 15 cents in 2003.
The company said in a statement it expects truckload capacity to remain tight in 2005 and that the "tight driver market will continue to be one of the industry's biggest challenges."
Transport Corp. of America is ranked No. 67 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Gouse Named Executive Director of Automotive Group
Bill Gouse was named executive director of the United States Council for Automotive Research, effective Wednesday, USCAR said.Gouse has had more than 24 years of automotive and management experience. He most recently served since July 2002 as vice president of engineering for American Trucking Associations.
Prior to ATA, Gouse held executive engineering positions at Freightliner LLC in Portland, Ore.
He is currently pursuing a master of science degree in transportation emissions from the University of Leeds. Transport Topics
SEC to Hear Business Concerns Over Sarbanes-Oxley
The Securities and Exchange Commission said it would host a roundtable discussion of business leaders this spring to hear concerns over the federal Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-accountability act, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.The paper said the SEC had been criticized by some business interests in the past few months for being too regulatory minded.
One of business’s biggest concerns is a rule under Sarbanes-Oxley that requires companies to provide annual assessments of their internal controls for financial reporting, the Journal said.
SEC Chairman William Donaldson said he had asked his staff to consider a delay in implementing the rule at smaller companies scheduled to fall under the regulation this summer, the paper reported. Transport Topics
(Click here for related story.)
United Road Services Becomes Private
Auto hauler United Road Services Inc. has become a private company, a company spokeswoman said.The Romulus, Mich., company will not be reporting any further earnings, she said. Transport Topics
Senate Begins Debate on Class-Action Bill
The Senate began debate Monday on a measure that would allow many class-action suits to be shifted from state to federal jurisdictions, news services reported.The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill backed by business groups last Thursday that would allow corporations to move more class-action lawsuits from state to federal courts.
Business leaders say the bill would prevent suits from being filed in jurisdictions where juries could be sympathetic to plaintiffs, the Associated Press reported.
Consumer and environmental groups were pressing for an amendment that would allows federal judges to choose a state law in large class-action suits, the New York Times reported. Transport Topics
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